Thursday Night Bible Study

Exodus 30 (Click title for audio access)

"The 4M Club"  •  5.26.11  •  Calvary Christian Fellowship, Thursday Night Bible Study

Intro.

- We have looked at the implements for the Tabernacle. God has been instructing Moses in the details of this portable worship center.

- Tonight, we'll look at the Altar of Incense, the Bronze Laver and the annointing oil.

Text

•  Exodus 30:1,2  :  "You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width—it shall be square—and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it."  :  The Altar of incense would not be a very large, being only a foot and half long and wide and a little over 3 feet high. This would be one whole piece of acacia wood, intricately carved.

•  Exodus 30:3-5  :  "And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around. Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it. You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold."  : We mentioned that every item inside of the tent of meeting, spoke of Jesus in that His humanity is represented in the use of wood and His deity is represented in the use of gold.

- When we think about Jesus from this perspective, prior to His incarnation, we think of Him as being the God that would become man. Gold is the overlay.

- After His incarnation, the reverse is true, as flesh or wood overlays the gold. Here in the instruction regarding the Tabernacle, we have the pattern of what we'll see in Heaven.

- Jesus who will be exalted to the right had of God, will be manifested as the God, who we will perceive in the context of His manhood, forever bearing scars that will speak of redemption.

- In the tabernacle, everything having to do with the pieces of tent furniture were made this way, and were all carried with poles that kept anyone from putting their hands upon them.

•  Exodus 30:6-10  :  "And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it. And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.'"  :  The Altar of Incense was located in the Holy Place, just before entering the Holy of Holies.

- Notice those words: Where I will meet with you! That is the purpose of this entire group of chapters. God wants to meet with His people. That hasn't changed.

- We come here to this room every week for this very purpose: To meet personally with God!

- He speaks to us through His Word. We meet with Him through prayer.

- Aaron was to burn incense upon the altar morning and evening. The incense was to be burned before the Lord perpetually. There was to be a distinct smell emanating from the Holy Place.

- It was Aaron's responsibility to keep that smell fresh in the air on a daily basis, perpetually.

- Aaron of course, could not live forever. This was the function that was to be performed by the real High Priest, Jesus, that Aaron foreshadowed.

- The other parts of the tabernacle have spoken about what Jesus has done, in terms of His work and sacrifice. Now, as we look into the Holy Place, we see what Jesus is doing even now!

- Incense scripturally, refers to prayer, specifically the function of intercessory prayer, which the Lord performs on our behalf today.

   •  Hebrews 7:23-25  :  "Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." : That is the perpetual office of the High Priest. In the same way, this is also picturesque of the life of the believer, who is also called to intercede in prayer.

- Revelation 5:8 tells us that the 24 elders bring golden bowls full of incense, which John identifies as the prayers of the saints.

- That incense was perpetual, sweet and ever rising toward the Father. That is what your prayers are to the Lord, perfected by the Holy Spirit and joined to the prayers of Christ our Lord.

- This altar was to be used only for this specific incense. This was not a multi-functional instrument. The only thing to be burned on this altar was the incense.

- The High Priest was not to offer a drink, grain or burnt offering on it. Prayer is not a mode of sacrifice. We are not to look at prayer in that light. It's because of sacrifice that we can stand there.

- Often, Christians view their prayer life as a work before the Lord. God is saying through type and shadow that this was not the way it was to be.

•  Exodus 30:11,12  :  "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ^'When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them."  :  When the people of Israel came into the land of Israel, Moses would perform a census.

- God required that a census be done. Only an owner of any given property or a sovereign had the right to count what was theirs. In performing the census, God was taking stock of what was His.

- Later, this is why God responds with such ferocity when David attempts to number the people. They were not David's to count! They belonged to the Lord.

•  Exodus 30:13-16  :  "This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the Lord. Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the Lord. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves. And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.'"  : This was a required offering to the Lord and it amounted to a half of a silver shekel, a very small amount of currency.

- This was mandatory and was paid equally by all over 20 years old despite each person's financial situation. It was to be paid by every single person.

- Nobody could pay for another. Nobody could give a generous amount that would cover all. Each person was to acknowledge their redemption by paying this token.

- That is the way of redemption. Each person must individually acknowledge the work of redemption in their life. Has Christ redeemed you?

- You must personally acknowledge that. Nobody can acknowledge it for you and you cannot acknowledge it for another! This is a personal point of faith.

- This money would give an accurate assessment of how many people there were but was to also take care of the needs for the tabernacle of meeting.

•  Exodus 30:17-21  :  "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ^'You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. And you shall put water in it, for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it. When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water, lest they die. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die. And it shall be a statute forever to them—to him and his descendants throughout their generations.'"  :  Aside from the material, God does not give any cubits here for this bronze wash basin. Bronze was the metal of judgement and thus belonged in the outer court.

- This "laver" was for cleansing the hands and feet of the priests.

- After one passed the large bronze altar, there was a natural need for cleansing, which the bronze laver would attend to.

- It's interesting that the only the hands and feet need washing. The brazen altar was the symbol of Christ's offering, where He as the lamb of God, was sacrificed on the "killing place."

- For the priests, once the lamb was sacrificed, they were clean. However, being connected to the earth makes their feet and hands dirty.

- So it is with you and I. Christ's sacrifice has cleansed us forever. We are saved. Our sin no longer separates us from God. But, we live in a world that dirties us.

- As such, we need the constant cleansing that comes from confessing our sins to the Lord.

- But how do we continue to cleanse ourselves? How do we recognize sin? This is where things get interesting. The water we understand. Water is used in scripture to speak of God's Word.

- Ephesians 5:26 speaks of washing with water from the word. Indeed, we are cleansed by taking the water of the word and cleansing our minds from the filth of the earth.

- What about the bronze? Where they will get that is illustrative.

•  Exodus 38:8  :  "He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze, from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting."  :  The mirrors, made from polished brass in the ancient world, were used to form the laver. When a person came to wash, they saw their reflection through the water.

- We cleanse ourselves through the washing of water of the Word of God, which is a mirror that informs us what our lives are to look like!

- The consequences of not washing would be severe for the priests. Nobody was to presume to come before the Lord in any other condition other than what He prescribed.

- God could declare anything that He proposes. This is His house. These are His priests. Worship is about Him!

- Speaking of our lives as priests, we are to be careful to be clean before the Lord, not because He will strike us down or reject us, but because that sin will disrupt our fellowship with Him!

•  Exodus 30:22-25  :  "Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ^'Also take for yourself quality spices—five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane, five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil."  :  The Lord is very specific regarding the annointing oil that would be made by a perfumer. The anointing oil was more than just oil. It was a perfume.

•  Exodus 30:26-30  :  "With it you shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the Testimony; the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense; the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base. You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests."  : The oil was to be used by Moses to anoint all of the articles of ministry within the confines of the Tabernacle.

- The oil, symboiic of the Holy Spirit, was to be upon each of these instruments that God would use to bring His people before Him.

- At the same time, the priests would smell like that which the anointing spice would have touched. The holy things that had this scent one with the priests that ministered upon them.

- There is a fragrance that comes from a spirit filled life. It is the fragrance of Christ diffused through His people.  Each of us should smell like the Lord.

•  Exodus 30:31-33  :  "And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on man’s flesh; nor shall you make any other like it, according to its composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people.’"  :  The oil was never to be replicated. It was not to be used as a perfume and nothing was to be like it.

- The Spirit of God is not to be imitated by another. You must embrace His annointing of you and what that produces for Him. It cannot be that we seek to imitate another's annointing.

- That is flesh. That is what the flesh does: It imitates. God's annointing creatively initiates!

- They couldn't make anything similar, they could not put it on a foreigner. The oil was used to anoint the people of God and the instruments of the tabernacle.

•  Exodus 30:34-38  :  "And the Lord said to Moses: 'Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy. And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the Lord. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.'" : God wants this to be holy for His use only. We're not to use His annointing for our own purposes.

- He wants us to look at our giftings as Holy or separated for His purposes, not our own enrichment, which is easy to do, especialy in this world of self promotion.

Conclusion

- God has given us a job, to intercede as He does on behalf of His people. We're to operate with the annointing that God has given us individually, using it for His purpose and not our own.

- This is the purpose of our ministry, joining ourselves to the mission of Christ and the power that runs it, the cleansing of His Word the annointing of His Spirit.